Benefits of home working
"Amid the distress and disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic it is important also to focus on areas where there have been unforeseen but significant benefits.
"One such area is the substantial increase in working from home. This has been little short of a working revolution affecting 40% of workers. In years to come this may be regarded as one of the most important and beneficial legacies of the pandemic.
"In March the large company I work for made great efforts to enable engineering design staff to work mainly from home while keeping the factory open. This has yielded considerable benefits for the company, the employees, the local town and, on a larger scale, the environment. For the company, management has reported greater productivity and deadlines have continued to be met. For employees, the lack of commuting has saved typically at least an hour per day with associated costs saved. For the local town, there has been less traffic congestion and noise, and resulting lower pollution has led to improved air quality, benefiting especially those with breathing disorders.
"On a larger scale of the national workforce, the lower carbon emissions from traffic can only be of great benefit to the environment and the fight against climate change.
"As the lockdown eases there have been calls from MPs for working from home to cease where possible in a bid to return to ‘normality’. But why would we wish to return to a ‘normality’ that loses these benefits? To call for the wholesale ending of home working and the consequent return to commuting, increased pollution and carbon emissions seems absurd. Rather, in the longer term companies should be encouraged to support working from home."
Theo Roberts, Langport, Somerset
Staying happy and healthy
"Thank you for your article “Under stress” (Professional Engineering No 3, 2020), an interesting read, although perhaps long overdue in terms of highlighting the adverse impact of stress encountered in our day-to-day working life as engineering professionals and the serious impact on our mental and physical health.
"How would the IMechE feel about conducting another, more inclusive survey across its members? I would like to think that this could be a starting point of future articles focusing on engineers’ mental health, and what we do as a profession to maintain happy and healthy mental health.
"Personally, I would be interested to learn more about the findings of the research being carried out by Jo-Anne Tait, PhD researcher on the mental health of engineers at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, and whether they need more engineers to engage in the study. In addition, what about running an article on Dr Mark McBride-Wright of EqualEngineers who runs courses to encourage men to open up about mental health?
"As an engineer who has taken extended periods off work due to stress, anxiety and depression, it’s essential to know your limits, how to cope when work and life gets overly stressful before reaching breaking point – that is a truly nightmarish place to be. This article is a positive and encouraging start, so what about making engineers’ mental health a regular feature in the magazine?"
Heather Albion
Batteries are not the answer
"The article “Storing energy at sea” pointed out the serious shortcomings of any grid-scale energy storage methods based on batteries (Professional Engineering No 3, 2020).
"Seabed pumped storage offers one interesting alternative to batteries and deserves consideration, but why use costly fabricated concrete spheres as the storage volume? An equivalent volume of cylindrical concrete pipe laid on the seabed would surely be cheaper and easier to construct?
"Professor Seamus Garvey of Nottingham University demonstrated many years ago that it is possible to store energy as compressed air on the seabed in little more than a waterproof canvas bag. The problem then, however, is how to counteract the buoyancy force when the bag is fully inflated. A simple solution might again be a concrete cylinder of equivalent weight to the buoyancy force.
"What is needed is some support for these, and other energy storage systems, as an alternative to the government myopia in which energy storage equals batteries.
"It is a shameful fact that the UK, with arguably the best offshore renewable energy resources in the world, is trailing behind countries such as Norway. Equinor (previously Statoil) is about to install eleven 8MW floating wind turbines in the Tampen field. The water depth is a record-breaking 300m, and this offers huge ready-made potential for a compressed air or pumped storage system on the seabed. The Norwegians have yet to tumble to their opportunity to become the world leader in seabed energy storage, but the penny will drop sooner or later. If and when it does, the UK will be left in the energy storage race, as usual, still in the starting blocks."
Ian Crossley, Camberley
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Content published by Professional Engineering does not necessarily represent the views of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.